Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Nearly caught up with Jesus.....

I've been saying to Caz for a long time that I'd like to have at least 12 followers, 'coz then I will have as many as Jesus' disciples! Well, I now have 11 .... come on bloggers, one more!

I thought I'd do a blog from the UK while we are here and then I can justify to Caz why I bought a netbook for our travels! Actually it has come in handy for looking up lots of things while we've been here, so I feel suitably vindicated.

The weather here has been fantastic. Lovely English summer days, it's lovely to have the sunshine with a cool breeze, and about 22C - perfect. We had a great day in the West End of London on Saturday with Jessica, Alice and Darryl. J&A are my daughters and D is Caz's youngest son. We did some of the touristy things, because Jessica (my eldest daughter) said she had never been to Buckingham Palace (although I'm pretty sure she has when she was younger). So we started at Trafalgar Square and walked up Pall Mall to the Palace. We walked past Horse Guards Parade, which is a sandy covered square where they do the Trouping of the Colours etc, and will host the 2012 Olympic Beach Volley Ball tournament, which, assuming we are back in the UK by then, has to be a "must see"! (errr... ladies of course).

The kids wanted to go to Oxford Street, so reluctantly we went. I hate Oxford Street. You can't move it's so packed and you are lucky to come away without being robbed! I definitely couldn't face Primark. For those not from the UK, Primark is now a revered shopping institution, particularly among the young shopping masses. They sell cheap (child labour/exploited labour produced - allegedly(!) ) fashion clothes. The clothes are so cheap that they are pretty much considered disposable. Buy-an-outfit-for-your-night-out-then-chuck-it-away-and-buy-another kind of thing. Anyway, for females, this is a very, very exciting shop. In Oxford Street, it is almost orgasmic! To me, it just looks like a glorified jumble sale and I hate it. So I sat outside with Darryl.

Saturday evening we went to see "We Will Rock You", the Ben Elton musical featuring the music of Queen. Rochelle (Caz's daughter) joined us for the show after she finished work. They all loved the show. I thought it was just "ok". The story was a bit contrived to fit the song titles and some of the characters wore a bit thin, but on the whole it was an enjoyable night.

Sunday we went to see the rest of my family in Hemel Hempstead which was nice. Then Jessica & Alice went home for school/college. It was lovely to spend some time with them. Although we speak to our kids on the phone every week, it's not the same as being with them.

Caroline's sister, who emigrated with her family to Brisbane last year, has been also in the UK for the last week and goes back to Oz on Wednesday. So it's been really nice for Caz to see her. We met up with her and her son Adam tonight for dinner with Darryl and Lee (Caz's eldest son).

The rest of the week is going to be pretty dossy, although I am taking a day out on Wednesday to see one of my suppliers based in Hampshire, but otherwise we don't have much else planned.

We fly back to Abu Dhabi on Saturday and at least I have Sunday off before it's back to the grind on Monday!

4 comments:

Hi Neil - glad to be No.11. About to move out to AD in about a month so reading your blog for some handy hints and insights before I come over. Great weather here at the mo...I am just south of London....just warming up for my summer in the desert!

Hey Lisa, Im on AD Women as well, come join us for some great information and laughs, of course. The ladies have coffee mornings at various places and evening meet ups too. I'm not in AD yet, but fingers crossed, it will happen soonish.http://www.abudhabiwoman.com/index.php

About Me

I moved to Abu Dhabi in June 2008 from Eynsford, Kent. Eynsford is a quaint, typical English village where my 250 year old home was nestled between two pubs.
Abu Dhabi was quite a contrast. There is nothing much there that is more than c.50 years old. In summer it is also about 30 degrees hotter!
I went to earn a bit of tax-free money (didn't really have much to show for it by the end!) and to gain some life experience (but came home with bags of this).
This blog is a record of my time there, so I can share some of what I experienced.